Weaning off Protonix / Pantoloc

I am posting my journey in hopes that it will help someone else who is weaning or trying to get off of PPI medications. A little background info: I am 24 years old and I was diagnosed with Gastritis at the end of September of this year, thanks to taking way too many NSAID's for back pain. I was prescribed to take 40 mg of Protonix twice daily for 8 weeks. My doctor has told me that to start the weaning process, it is easiest to go from 80mg a day to 40 mg. Depending on how I am doing in the next few weeks, I will then go from 40 mg a day to 20 mg a day.

The OTC medication I am using to treat rebound symptoms are Zantac 150 twice in the evening OR as needed (To shortly replace the evening PPI until my stomach settles down), Gaviscon Extra Strength and Original Strength chewable tablets - which in my opinion work better than tums, and lots of Apples and banana's (Alkaline Fruits). Apples are really good for your digestive system and neutralizing stomach acid. I have about 3 RED apples a day and one banana in the morning. I am not a coffee drinker but I heard that it's no help with rebound pain. I removed soda from my diet as well as fried foods. I am eating a lot of brown and white rice, as it absorbs stomach acid and fills you up. I am also drinking lots of water, about 3-4 bottles a day.

Today is my third day on only 40 mg of Protonix.

Yesterday, Day 2, was probably the worst so far, but manageable. My symptoms were minor reflux and heartburn. Gaviscon chewable tablets helped greatly with this as well as two Zantac at night time.

I will say a mistake I had made when I was 4 weeks into this medication. I had left my Protonix medication at a hotel I was staying at during the weekend. I wasn't able to get in touch with my doctor for a week as he was on holidays. Not knowing about acid rebound, I didn't really care about this.... until it hit me. I was in SO MUCH PAIN. I could hardly move. It landed me in the hospital where I received a GI cocktail to numb the pain and another bottle of Protonix. The doctor told me that you should not stop this medication cold turkey or this will happen.

Today, I do not have as much heartburn and have only taken one Gaviscon tablet so far - and it's almost lunch time!

I will update tomorrow

I am also in the process of weaning off of Protonix, which I have been taking for GERD.

I was taking 40mg every day before my last GI doc visit 3 months ago. Since then, I've been alternating between 20mg and 40mg doses every day. I see the GI doc again on the 11th. I've also been taking Pepcid 40mg every night at bedtime.

I did have rebound acidity, when I went down from 40mg to the 20mg/40mg alternate dosing, some of which resolved in days, some of it took about a month to settle down.

Best of luck to you.

The main issues I had for the first couple of days was nausea and regurgitation. The nausea subsided days after starting the taper, but the regurgitation was on and off and lasted for about a month.